Bloggers give Black Gold Farms online spotlight

Black Gold Farms, Grand Forks, N.D., recently invited five bloggers to experience the potato harvest season at their farm in Arbyrd, Mo. The group brought the “locally grown, fresh potato, family farm story” from the fields of Missouri to thousands of the bloggers’ Internet followers.

The tour is part of the Black Gold Farms effort to create relationships and credibility with the food blogger scene. The participating bloggers have almost 250,000 collective followers, and their large Internet outreach gave the tour experience nearly 1 million impressions on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

“There seems to be a disconnect with consumers today (with regard) to agriculture and understanding the process of getting produce from the field to store shelves. We wanted the main focus with this tour, to have the bloggers really understand the critical components to the farm, to meet the people who do the work, and to see the processes and our products,” Leah Brakke, director of marketing at Black Gold Farms, said in a news release,

The bloggers learned the many steps of growing and harvesting potatoes and producing potato chips. The tour allowed them to explore the fields, learn about the company potato varieties, experience a harvest and see the inside of the Black Gold packing facility, according to threlease.

In an effort to grow their brand, Black Gold Farms plans to connect with more consumers and bloggers through social media in the future.